▪ I. calendar, n.
(ˈkæləndə(r))
Forms: 3–8 kalender, 4 kalunder, calundere, kalendeere, -dre, -dare, 4–5 kalendere, 4–8 calender, 5 calendere, kalander, 7 callander, 6– kalendar, 7– calendar.
[a. AF. calender, = OF. calendier list, register:—L. calendārium account-book, f. calendæ, kalendæ calends, the day on which accounts were due; see calends.]
1. The system according to which the beginning and length of successive civil years, and the subdivision of the year into its parts, is fixed; as the Babylonian, Jewish, Roman, or Arabic calendar.
Julian Calendar, that introduced by Julius Caesar b.c. 46, in which the ordinary year has 365 days, and every fourth year is a leap year of 366 days, the months having the names, order, and length still retained.
Gregorian Calendar, the modification of the preceding adapted to bring it into closer conformity with astronomical data and the natural course of the seasons, and to rectify the error already contracted by its use, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in a.d. 1582, and adopted in Great Britain in 1752. See style.
| c 1205 Lay. 7219 He [Julius Caesar] makede þane kalender. a 1300 Cursor M. 24916 Þat moneth Þat man clepes..Decembre in þe kalunder. 1387 Trevisa Higden (1865) I. 247 Som monþe in þe kalendere haþ but foure Nonas, and som haþ sixe. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle v. i. 73 The competister in the Craft of the Kalendar he cleped seculum the tyme of an honderd yeere. 1611 Bible Pref. 2 When he [Cæsar] corrected the Calender, and ordered the yeere according to the course of the Sunne. 1831 Brewster Newton (1855) II. xxiii. 311 When the public attention was called to the reformation of the Kalendar. 1854 Tomlinson Arago's Astron. 188 The Arabic calendar, which is that of the Mahometans, is exclusively based on the course of the moon. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits x. Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 70 Roger Bacon explained precession of the equinoxes, [and] the consequent necessity of the reform of the calendar. 1886 R. Thomson Relig. Humanity 20 The founder of the Church [Aug. Comte] drew up its calendar..Each of the thirteen lunar months of the year is sacred to the memory of a great leader of humanity. |
2. A table showing the division of a given year into its months and days, and referring the days of each month to the days of the week; often also including important astronomical data, and indicating ecclesiastical or other festivals, and other events belonging to individual days. Sometimes containing only facts and dates belonging to a particular profession or pursuit, as Gardener's Calendar, Racing Calendar, etc. Also a series of tables, giving these facts more fully; an almanac.
| c 1340 Alisaunder 623 If any wight..wilnes þem [þe twelue signes] knowe, Kairus to þe Kalender · & kenne yee may. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. i. §11 The names of the halidayes in the kalender. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. xxxi. 126 This is xii tymes so moche & more ouer as the calender enseigneth. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, The Table and Kalendar expressing the order of the Psalms and Lessons. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 86 What hath this day deseru'd?.. That it in golden letters should be set Among the high Tides in the Kalender? 1635 Austin Medit. 207 Our Church keeps no Solemnitie for his [John the Baptist's] Death (though the Remembrance of it be in her Calender). 1759 Miller Gard. Dict. Pref., The Gardeners Kalendar which was inserted in the former editions of this book. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 38 Greatness..of a kind not to be settled by reference to the court calendar. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 423 Appendix, Agricultural Calendar. 1879 Print. Trades Jrnl. xxviii. 11 Almanacks and calendars in great variety. |
b. A contrivance for reckoning days, months, etc.
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. 74 Every seventh Notch was as long again as the rest, and every first Day of the Month as long again as that long one, and thus I kept my Kalender. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ., Captive (1778) II. 31 A little calendar of small sticks..notch'd all over with the dismal days and nights he [a captive] had passed there. 1863 T. Wright in Macm. Mag. Jan. 173 The Roman calendar of marble..presented the more prominent attributes of the modern almanac. |
† 3. fig. A guide, directory: an example, model.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 542 Thou..woste well that kalender ys she To any woman that wull louer be. c 1400 Epiph. (Turnb. 1843) 115 Lete hem afore be to yow a Kalendere. 1413 St. Trials Hen. V (R.) Images..introduced..by the permission of the church, to be as a calendar to the laity and the ignorant. 1426 Audelay Poems 27. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 114 He is the card or calendar of gentry. |
4. A list or register of any kind. (In the general sense, now only fig.)
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2641 Kydd in his kalander a knyghte of his chambyre. 1479 Office Mayor Bristol in Eng. Gilds 429 To be called and named the Maire of Bristowe is Register, or ellis the Maire is Kalender. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 141 He shoulde haue alwaies a little calender of them apart to vse readily. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Ch. Militant 243 When Italie..shall..all her calender of sinnes fulfill. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 207 The last time in Daniel's Kalendar of his Four Kingdoms. 1689 Myst. Iniq. 16 Registred in the Kalender with those that stood precluded the King's Favour. 1857 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets iii. 81 The calendar which opens so nobly with the name of Chaucer, closes worthily in our day with that of Wordsworth. |
b. esp. A list of canonized saints, or the like. (Now usually treated as a form of sense 2, the days dedicated to the memory of the saints being usually registered in the ‘calendar’ or almanac.)
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 346 When they receiued æsculapius as a canonized god into their Kalender. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. §45. 266 Such as the Holy Ghost registreth in the Kalender of true Saints. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. xxxiii. 254 The calendar of martyrs received..a considerable augmentation. 1832 W. Irving Alhambra II. 256 Peace offerings to every saint in the Kalendar. |
c. A list of prisoners for trial at the assizes.
| [1591 Declar. Gt. Troubles in Harl. Misc. (1809) II. 214 To call those inquisitions, with their answeres to be put into writing..to keepe in a maner of a register or kalender.] 1764 R. Sanders (title) The Newgate Calendar. 1768 Blackstone Comm. IV. 376 The usage is, for the judge to sign the calendar, or list of all the prisoners' names. 1823 Lamb Last Ess., To Shade of Elliston, Rhadamanthus..tries the lighter causes..leaving to his two brothers the heavy calendars. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits iv. Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 28 The crimes recorded in their calendars. |
d. spec. A list or register of documents arranged chronologically with a short summary of the contents of each, so as to serve as an index to the documents of a given period.
| [1467 Ordin. Worcester in Eng. Gilds 370 The Kalender of the articles and acts afore specified.] 1830 (Rolls Series) (title) Calendars of the Proceedings in Chancery in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1856 (title) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series of the Reign of Edward VI. |
† 5. fig. A record. Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. iii. 4 The Kalender of my past endeuours. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. lvii. (1739) 105 His meritorious Holy War could never wipe it out of the Calendar of story. a 1718 Penn Tracts Wks. 1726 I. 589 Once they were as Calendars, for weak People to read some Mystical Glory by. |
† b. An outward sign, index. Obs.
| 1590 Lodge Euphues Gold. Leg. (1887) 13 Nor are the dimples in the face the calendars of truth. |
† 6. One who has charge of records or historical documents. Occurring in the name of an ancient guild in Bristol. Obs.
| 1479 Office Mayor Bristol in Eng. Gilds 417 The..prestis of the hous of the Kalenders of Bristowe. ? c 1600 MS., ibid. 287 The rites and liberties of the Kalenders, of the fraternitie of the church of All Saincts in Bristow, who were a brotherhood consisting of clergy and laymen, and kept the ancient recordes and mynaments, not onely of the towne, but also of other societes in other remote places. |
7. attrib. and Comb., as calendar-day, calendar-holiday, calendar-saint; calendar-clock, a clock which indicates the days of the week or month; calendar-court, a court of justice held on a day appointed in the calendar; calendar month, one of the twelve months into which the year is divided according to the calendar; also the space of time from any day of any such month to the corresponding day of the next, as opposed to a lunar month of four weeks.
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 38 [A] *Calendar Clock [or a] Calendar Watch..[are] a clock or watch that denotes the progress of the calendar. |
| 1865 Morning Star 26 May, The court was not a *calendar court. |
| 1875 Poste Gaius i. (ed. 2) 101 A *calendar day consisted of 24 hours measured from midnight to midnight. 1847 Emerson Repres. Men iv. Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 346, I mean to..celebrate the calendar-day of our Saint Michael de Montaigne. |
| 1713 ‘Philopatrius’ Refl. Sacheverell's Thanksgiv.-Day 8, I..consulted my Almanack, and found it was no *Calendar Holiday. |
| 1788 J. Powell Devises (1827) II. 255 Within six *calendar months after his decease. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. x. 507 This whole revolution..took up less than one kalendar month. |
| 1679 Establ. Test. 40 The Catalogue of their *Calender Saints. |
▪ II. † ˈcalendar, a. Obs. rare—1.
[ad. L. calendārius belonging to the calends.]
Of the calends: applied to the Curia calabra at the Capitol at Rome, where the calends were proclaimed.
| 1513 Douglas æneis viii. xi. 29 Neyr the chymmys calendare. |
▪ III. calendar, v.
(ˈkæləndə(r))
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To register in a calendar or list; to register, record.
| 1487 Act 3 Hen. VII, iii, The names of every such prisoner..to be kalendred by fore the justices for the delyveraunce of the same gaole. 1547 Act 1 Edw. VI, v. §5 The said Wardens shall cause the Number of the said Horses..to be kalendered in a Book. 1624 Heywood Gunaik. iii. 150 Let that day never be callendred to memorise them. 1697 View Penal Laws 97 He shall shew his Licence to one of the Wardens of the Marches (that their number may be Kalendred). 1870 Emerson Soc. & Sol., Work & Days Wks. (Bohn) III. 69 Life was then calendared by moments. |
2. spec. a. To register in the calendar of saints or saints' days.
| 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. (1632) 388 Wee are generally more apt to Kalender Saints then Sinners dayes. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. 55 The Divines of Colen calendred Aristotle for a Saint. 1654 R. Whitlock Manners Eng. 21 (R.) Oft martyred names, as well as men, are calendared. 1842 Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 130 Holy men, whose names Are register'd and calendar'd for saints. |
b. To arrange, analyse, and index (documents): see the n. 4 d.
| 1859 Riley Liber Albus Pref. 21 These books..that are thus calendared. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 540 Treasures of the Record-Office..lately calendered and indexed. 1881 Sat. Rev. 24 Sept. 395/1 The task of analysing and calendaring [state-]papers. |
Hence ˈcalendaring vbl. n.
| 1671 F. Philipps Reg. Necess. Ep. Ded., Allowances of Money..for the Calendring and well ordering of them. |
▪ IV. calendar
see calender n.1, n.2.